I have been following with interest the recent proposal by Victoria Coun. Krista Loughton for the city to create small emergency, managed, temporary shelter sites as an interim solution to the ongoing and complicated issues concerning our unhoused and addicted community.
The work that the city and relevant partners have done to produce a roadmap to include all levels of government is highly commendable and speaks to a committed community of compassionate people looking for short- and long-term solutions.
The Downtown Business Association is rightly concerned about the viability of its operations continuing without immediate solutions to the problems created by our unhoused. Given that many of the proposals in the safety plan will be long term and involve many players, a temporary solution such as that of tiny homes can provide relief.
The success of 940 Caledonia and The Village model in Duncan demonstrate that this proposal for temporary tiny homes communities should be considered by council and relevant partners.
Lynn Taylor
Victoria
After seeing a man up-Island was put into intensive care after a bike ran into him, I remembered that I was recently nearly run into by a man on a bike in downtown Victoria.
I was approaching a blind corner on a sidewalk and just about to walk through when an idiot on a motorized bike blew past me from the left, on the sidewalk. I would most certainly have been severely injured. He just carried on.
This stuff occurs hourly, day after day in our downtown. Violations by the minute. No repercussions. No tickets.
Why is it allowed to continue?
Where are the cops? Have they been instructed by city hall to ignore it all? What’s going on?
Stephen Kishkan
Victoria
We just returned from a month in Spain and upon returning to Victoria we always reflect on our experiences and observations. We also always have this conversation with other recent Victoria travellers. The big question is “why?”
Yes, Spain has some homeless people. Our experience is they stand quietly with a hat in hand for some money. Nowhere did we see drug use, stoned or drunk individuals on the streets, no garbage carts, no tents, no big congregations of unhealthy people and no smell of marijuana. We always felt safe. Yes, we paid attention, but we never felt in danger.
We always walk in the places we stay, going into different neighbourhoods, and use trains to our next destinations. Even in the small towns where the trains stop, you never see this discourse. We have travelled in other EU countries over a few years and we have experienced the same as above. Our fellow travellers agree.
Are there lessons we can learn from Spain or other countries? Why can’t we resolve these issues in our own backyards?
Sharen Warde
Victoria
Do we really need a U.S.-based Rick Steves travel column that is promoting excessive European travel? The locals there don’t want or care for this.
Lisa McKinnon
Victoria
Re: “Building new ferries in Europe would have cost $1.2B more: transportation minister,” June 15.
Oscar Wilde wrote that a cynic is “A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
In shopping the world for the cheapest work, are B.C. Ferries executives being cynical? Have they factored in the value of keeping these billions of dollars at home and at work in our own economy?
Our shipbuilders don’t bid because they know that they can’t compete with the lower wages, employment standards, environmental standards and safety standards of the offshore shipyards favoured by B.C. Ferries. But what if we were to pay the higher price for building the vessels at home?
What part of those billions would eventually go back to the government through taxation of materials, wages and profits? What economic benefit would locally sourced materials and well-paid skilled labour have for families, local economies and communities? How can we ever have and maintain our own shipbuilding industry when we sell it out to price-cutting, state-subsidized competitors?
Instead of considering only the price in sending our tax dollars overseas, B.C. Ferries and the government might look at the larger picture and calculate the overall economic and social value of spending the money here to support our own workers, industry and communities.
Frederick Shand
Victoria
Re: “Pave the Island rail line,” letter, June 18.
This letter to the editor was ill-conceived, in my opinion. Victoria is quickly becoming a metropolis. In a short 25 years, the whole southern tip of the Island excluding North Saanich and Metchosin will effectively be one city.
Paving over the rail line would forever deprive us of the possibility of installing fast rail.
We need only look at Europe and the Middle East to see their methods for dealing with congestion on their roads and highways. Their rail lines have trains vastly exceeding the speed cars are currently limited to.
I beseech an MLA to step forward and place that matter squarely before the provincial government. Do it now while it is still financially viable. Forgo this opportunity and we will need an exorbitantly expensive system such as Vancouver needed by installing its above-ground SkyTrain.
Prepare for the future now!
Eric J. Ronse
Shawnigan Lake
Re: “We can do nothing to stop climate change,”comment, June 21.
The climate emergency is very serious and getting worse, as more frequent and dangerous wildfires and heat waves show. But climate doomers, like climate deniers, are wrong.
Much of what we need to do to start re-stabilizing the climate is well understood, is already government policy, and has additional economic and social benefits.
For example, the B.C. government is planning to spend many billions widening highways, including $162-million widening Highway 1 through Goldstream Park. Highway expansion makes traffic worse and increases carbon pollution.
Investing these billions in electric public transit, walking, rolling and cycling would provide congestion relief and reduce carbon pollution. It would also enhance affordability, safety, health and even happiness.
Shifting funding from highway expansion to public transit and active transportation has been federal and provincial climate policy since 2016.
Solar and wind energy are now less expensive than fossil fuels. And burning fossil fuels, such as gas from fracking in B.C., is the primary cause of global heating. Investing in a stronger Canadian east-west electricity transmission grid to connect intermittent sources to hydroelectric storage and demand is an obvious next step.
Our governments claim they want to transition to clean energy.
We have effective climate solutions and most Canadians want our governments to get it done. The problem is that our governments are not getting it done.
We are the majority, and need to demand real climate action. Loudly.
Eric Doherty
Victoria
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